GRAPHITE REACTOR PHYSICS

Technical Report · Fri May 15 04:00:00 EDT 1964

OSTI ID:4024037

Bacher, P; Cogne, F; Noc, B

The study of graphite-natural uranium power reactor physics, undertaken when the Marcoule piles were built, has continued to keep in step with the development of this type of pile. The critical facility MARIUS has been available for a systematic study of the properties of lattices as a function of their pitch, fuel geometry, and diameter of cooling channels. This study has covered a lattice pitch varying from 19 to 38 cm, uranium rods and tubes of cross sections from 6 to 35 cm{sup 2}, and channels with diameters between 70 and 140 mm. The lattice calculation methods could thus be checked and where necessary adapted. The runnning of the Marcoule piles and the experiments carried out on them during the last few years have supplied information on the overall evolution of the neutronic properties of the fuel as a function of irradiation. More detailed experiments have also been performed in MARIUS with plutonium-containing fuels (irradiated or synthetic fuels), and will be undertaken at the beginning of 1965 at high temperature in the critical facility CESAR, which is being completed at Cadarache. Spent fuel analyses complement these results and help in their interpretation. The thermalization and spectra theories can thus be verified over the whole valid temperature range. The efficiency of control rods as a function of their dimensions, the materials of which they are made, and the lattices surrounding them has been measured in MARIUS, and the results compared with calculation on the one hand and with the measurements carried out in EDF 1 on the other. Studies on the control proper of graphite piles were concerned essentially with the risks of spatial instability and the means of detecting and controlling them, and with flux distortions caused by the control rods. (auth)

• Research Organization: Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Paris (France)
• NSA Number: NSA-18-038296
• OSTI ID: 4024037
• Report Number(s): A/CONF.28/P/75
• Country of Publication: France
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CESAR
CONFIGURATION
CONTROL
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CRITICAL ASSEMBLIES
DEFORMATION
DETECTION
DISTRIBUTION
EDF-1
EFFICIENCY
EQUATIONS
FRANCE
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUELS
GAS COOLANT
GAS FLOW
GRAPHITE MODERATOR
HIGH TEMPERATURE
IRRADIATION
LATTICES
MARIUS
MEASURED VALUES
NATURAL URANIUM FUEL
NEUTRON FLUX
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
OPERATION
PLUTONIUM
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORE
REACTOR KINETICS
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
REACTORS
RODS
SLOWDOWN
SPECTRA
STABILITY
SWITZERLAND
THERMAL NEUTRONS
TUBES
VARIATIONS